In mid July I received a letter from SCM saying that Lloyds were "minded to enter into settlement negotiations". Since then, I have heard nothing from SCM and nothing from the county court. (I sent in the AQ in early July). I feel that there should be a case for the court not to stay a hearing because the defendant has already agreed to enter into negotiations (while not admitting liability of course). Because this is a small claims court track, is there an argument that it would be an abuse of process to award a stay for a long period while the OFT case is ongoing? After all, the whole point of the small claims track is to encourage settlement before court and to offer a speedy process..... and, as I mentioned, the defendant has already indicated their intention to negotiate. We might all be agreed that it is unfair that the court can take hundreds of pounds in fees and then not be able to offer a court date - however is there any way that I can argue that it is in the best interests of the principle of operation of the small claims court that they proceed to a hearing? Any particular suggestions for a letter to the court and any suggestions for a letter to SCM to convince them to negotiate a settlement.

A little while back I received a "minded to enter into settlement negociations" letter from SCM.... but since the test case announcement, I have heard nothing from SCM and nothing from the court. Any suggestions as to next steps? In particular does anyone think I can use the fact that Lloyds is minded to enter into negociations in order to convince the court not to give a lengthy stay?

Since I have now paid the allocation hearing fee of £100, I should now be adding this to the costs of the claim - do you think my reply to SCM's "request for further information" is a good place to mention this also?

Thanks Christina, Any thoughts about mentioning their time-wasting tactics in the reply? Could threaten them with the prospect of wasted costs?

I have received a letter from SCM, very similar to this one: "request for further information" Apart from sending the same schedule of charges does anyone have any other advice? Here's what they're asking for: 1, Each and every individual amount of the charge that you are claiming and are disputing 1. The date of each and evey charge that you say was deducted from your account 3. How you calculated any interest 4. How you calculate the sum of £XXXXX and 5. Confirm your sort code and bank account number I'm guessing 1. and 2. is their attempt to check that you have all your bank statements. 4. is a reasonable request perhaps........? But 5. ..........as if they haven't received that information enough times already!

Sure, maybe I wasn't too clear but I wasn't actually suggesting that blinky takes the car abroad - just that he points out the potential liability to the garage should he choose to do so. Perhaps, as you say, it is better to tell the garage that he intends to hire a replacement car and will seek to recover the costs from the garage. You can be sure that a NetworkQ garage does have a replacement car for you under these circumstances - it is simply a question of showing them that it is in their interests to provide it to you.

Who are you dealing with in the garage where you bought the car? With this kind of problem I'd write to the group MD explaining the nature of the problem and, since they have had the opportunity to fix the car, pointing out that, should you decide to take the car abroad, you will hold them responsible for all repair and towing charges while on holiday as well as damages. Tell them that you consider that the fault is potentially dangerous and that their potential liability is far greater than the profit they have made on selling the car. Give them a couple of reasonable choices either to replace the car or to provide a temporary replacement while they take your car in for further investigation. The fact that no fault codes are showing doesn't tell you everything. Some faults simply won't show in the log. Yes, you have statutory rights but this doesn't really help much to get a working car for your holiday. The garage WILL have a car they will lend you if they feel it is justifiable. Just point out that you're reasonable and that their potential liability is huge and they'll suddenly find a car for you. If you have a video camera or a phone with a video, take it around with you all the time and film the car as soon as it misbehaves.

AQ in the post today for my remaining case against Lloyds. Using the new draft order for directions which seems reasonable to me. Still looking for evidence such as old T&Cs but while I haven't turned those up, I have a few items which could possibly be used to help me. 1. A letter from Lloyds stating that I will be charged £0.00 for an excess overdraft fee. In fact they deducted £20. 2. A letter from Lloyds stating that I have been charged £20 for an excess overdraft fee but asking if I wished funds to be transferred from another account. In this case their defence that they are providing a service by using the bank's own funds is not true. 3. I have found an instance where Lloyds have charged me for a returned direct debit where the charge is more than the direct debit. i.e. they have increased my debt by not paying an item. If Lloyds insist that they are providing a service, it is interesting to ask what service is being provided in this case - after all, one assumes that a service must have at least some benefit to the customer. These are just peripheral arguments I'm thinking about but wondered if anyone has any comments.

Some progress: Lloyds have agreed to settle one of my claims. They tried to impose a confidentiality clause although I removed it..... So, 2 questions: Where do I show the settled amount so that it can be added to the total on the site? And is there a template for telling the court that the claim has been settled? Any particular wording? Thanks to everyone for the support so far........

A letter from LloydsTSB re. my business account...... They say "I notice that you've referred to the Unfair Contracts Terms Act 1977 and the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations but these don't apply to you as you're a business customer and these acts and regulations only apply to consumers." That's all very well, but I never mentioned a thing about either of these acts in my request for repayment or LBA or any correspondece over my business account. It's a rather strange thing to add as it shows they haven't actually read my letters to them!

Thanks for that Mat. Can anyone confirm that they have added charges after the lba and been successful or whether this is acceptable?

Replying to my own thread.... Sending two LBAs today. I have a question - LTSB are continuing to charge me - no surprise - so the amount I'd like to claim is now larger than what was mentioned in the request for refund of charges........... What's best to do? Stick to the same amount, let it run and then when they make the refund, repeat the process for any amounts that weren't in the original claim? Also, in my original post, I mentioned the workaround that some people are using in the spreadsheet with interest of entering -0.01 as the overdraft amount during a month when there is no overdraft. I thought I'd add to this by saying that it is surely more satisfactory to use the "most negative balance during the period for which interest was charged" for months where the date in question gives a credit balance. This will give a lower interest figure which is probably more in favour of the banks however using -0.01 is inaccurate and could be construed as a deliberate miscalculation; in this respect, it's better to be cautious, I think.

Hello to all you Lloyds people, I'm about to start a claim each for charges on my personal and business accounts with Lloyds TSB. £2274 before interest on my personal account, £835 before interest on my business account. I'm a bit confused as far as calculating the overdraft interest created by these fees is concerned. The spreadsheets seem to use a method of approximation which doesn't really work in my case..... For example, on the day the interest was charged, I was often in credit and the spreadsheet calculates the interest charged as zero. Some people in this thread http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/6964-spreadsheet-interest.html have entered -0.01 as a workaround when this is the case but that just doesn't seem right to me....... Has anyone got any suggestions as to alternative methods (and formulae) for calculating overdraft interest on charges?

I wouldn't want to take away the ethos of the site! Besides, I think that would be pretty difficult........ And I agree, a site that simply told you to "do this / do that" wouldn't be empowering at all......... It's just that this site is SO big that it's easy to get lost among all the advice. Other forums suffer from the same problem but here everyone has the same starting point (I want to get back unfair fees) and the same end goal (I got back my unfair fees)........ It's just that getting there is perhaps a little different for everyone and it would be pleasant to find relevant threads more easily...... Re-designing it all free of charge - No, that's my day job But I'd happily help out with making a flow diagram with the help of others who could help tell me what to put on it.

Something like that.......... but not really what I had in mind. That one starts off ok, asking a question have you got statements? Yes / No but it doesn't offer a lot beyond that......... What I had in mind looks like a tree with questions at each branch so that you can see that whole process and view the possible paths all in one go. For example there should be paths showing the different ways interest can be claimed, business or personal, over / under the small claims amount........ I'm just giving a few examples there - I'm no expert (yet?)........ The idea is that the diagrams asks questions in order to give instructions...... And of course at every possible branch there would be relevant links to help answer those questions. I guess you know what I'm on about......